Wiser, happier, wobblier: hear James Blake's new album Overgrown

The two years between the release of James Blake's downbeat debut LP and Overgrown have been
telling. He's been summoned to work with Kanye West, received nods for a Mercury and an
Ivor Novello, as well as fallen in love. Which perhaps explains
why, though Overgrown still drips with his debut's
melancholy, it's punctured by a brightness formerly absent. Not
that Blake has lost his trademark emotional intensity: opener
"Overgrown" winds its breathy, Joni Mitchell-shaded vocal
through rhythms that stumble drunkenly like a lonely post-club walk
home, while "I Am Sold" wails through crackling static.

But the maudlin is counterpointed by the neon glow of
his return to the dancefloors where he cut his teeth; the
cowbell-clattering techno strut of "Voyeur" or his
collaborations with Wu Tang mainstay RZA, both low-end driven club
tracks deserving of pop crossover. It would have been easy for
Blake to stick to his much-copied (but never bettered) formula, but
Overgrown shows a songwriter confident enough to wander
without losing a sound ineffably his own.